The human body is equipped with receptors integrally connected to and cooperating with the central nervous system, to sense, process and interact with five general types of external environmental stimuli which include sight, smell, taste, sound, and touch. The sensory receptors signal changes in: (a) the environment, or (b) in the human body relative to the environment, and relay this information to the central nervous system. External tactile environmental stimuli are detected and monitored by a class of receptors called exteroreceptors.
Skin contains a variety of exteroceptors distributed throughout the epidermal, dermal and subcutaneous layers of cells. Each type of exteroceptor is specialized to detect only one specific stimulus e.g., heat or cold (i.e. thermoreceptors), pain (i.e. nociceptors), and tactile stimuli such as touch and pressure (i.e. mechanoreceptors). Nociceptors are primarily comprised of nerve endings distributed throughout the body, and are especially prevalent in the dermal and subcutaneous layers of cells. Mechanoreceptors are distributed throughout the epidermal, dermal and subcutaneous layers of cells. Delicate intermittent tactile stimuli applied to the hands and face can be precisely sensed and localized by phasic receptors such as hair follicles and Meissner's corpuscles distributed throughout the epidermal and dermal cell layers, while constant but very light cutaneous stimuli are detected by tonic receptors such as Ruffini endings and Merkel cells, also primarily located in the epidermal and dermal layers. These specific types of exteroceptors are intimately involved in the body's ability to sense and organize a dynamic topographical map of tactile stimuli based on the plurality of signals transmitted to the brain from the individual exteroceptors. The communication and cooperation between the exteroreceptors and the central nervous system enable and precisely control manual dexterity, the ability to precisely and delicately manipulate objects, and the abilities to sense and respond to pleasant and pleasurable tactile stimuli. Pacinian corpuscles are deep-phasic pressure-sensitive receptors that are primarily distributed throughout the subcutaneous regions of the body and function primarily to sense significant squeezing and pressing forces. These types of forces are also sensed by nociceptors, but tend to mask and overwhelm the function of phasic and tonic exteroceptors located in the epidermal and dermal cell layers. The Pacinian corpuscles are also responsible for modulating responses related to the regulation of grasping and gripping, but do not significantly assist in the body's fine motor skill responses required for precisely controlled manual dexterity.
Many people experience as a result of traumatic injuries or degenerative diseases, permanent damage to the central nervous system and/or to the spinal chord and/or to exteroreceptors, particularly the phasic and tonic receptors, thereby resulting in significant and permanent losses of tactile sensory perception within their extremities and body trunk regions, and also, in nerve-mediated fine motor control over the precise movement and control of their extremities. However, although their abilities to receive and process tactile stimuli and to control their body movements in response thereto have been impaired to some significant degree, people suffering such impairments are not often impaired in their abilities to sense, process and positively experience visual, auditory, olfactory and oral stimuli. Moreover, a significant portion of such people have functional nocireceptors and deep-phasic receptors that communicate and cooperate with some portions of the central nervous system, and thereby are capable of at least some degree of gross motor control of functions such as grasping and gripping. Furthermore, persons with physical disabilities typically retain full organ function as well as their intellectual and emotional functionality and qualities, and therefore, retain their needs and desires to experience and respond to such non-tactile stimuli in a physical manner. Examples of such experiences and responses include sexual pleasure and gratification.
Devices and appliances employable for sexual pleasure and gratification are well known in the prior art and are widely available to the general public. They include simple phallus-shaped structures provided with vibrator motors housed therein as exemplified in U.S. Pat. No. 5,573,499, for external and internal stimulation of body surfaces. The options available with such simple appliances are expandable by the use of couplings to interconnect the devices with handles or other such devices, as disclosed in published U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/395,863. Other types of devices and appliances such as those described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,690,603, U.S. Pat. No. 5,853,362 and published U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/797,634 have been ergonomically designed for ease of graspability and manoeuvrability to facilitate internal stimulation of certain organs and/or to enable concurrent use with a partner. However, such devices and appliances tend to be useful primarily for stimulation of phasic and tonic exteroreceptors that are situated in the epidermal and dermal layers immediately underlying internal and external body surfaces. Furthermore, their structural designs and operational controls typically require some degree of manual dexterity combined with muscular agility and fine motor control over body extremities. Accordingly, such devices and appliances are not particularly useful or satisfactory for focused stimulation of the deep-phasic pressure-sensitive receptors such as Pacinian corpuscles that are primarily distributed throughout the subcutaneous regions of the body.
More elaborate configurations of sex aid devices and appliances requiring less manual dexterity and less manipulation by hand are also known in the prior art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,890,293 teaches a driving apparatus for a massaging device for sexual organs that is mountable on a pedestal. Published U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/786,268 discloses a bicycle handle bar type apparatus which is interconnectible with a U-shaped intermediate component to a detachable dildo. The opposing ends of the handle bar apparatus are simultaneously grippable with two hands to enable easier manipulation of a dildo interconnected thereto. U.S. Pat. No. 6,540,667 describes a device comprising two elongate members secured by a pivotal connection whereto a sexual appliance is removably attached. The device is provided with a biasing member to bias apart the opposite ends of the two elongate members. The sexual appliance can be made to travel back and forth along a longitudinal axis by compressing and uncompressing the two elongate members with the legs of an operator. U.S. Pat. No. 6,899,671 describes a three-arm Y-shaped tubular apparatus wherein the outer arms are secured to a user's ankles by cuffs, and a sexual appliance is detachably engaged with the centre arm. The apparatus is then operated in a hands-free manner by rhythmic rocking of the user's hips. Although such elaborate devices may not require significant hand manipulation when in use, their assembly, preparation for use, and disassembly requires significant manual dexterity and fine motor skill control. Consequently, such devices and appliances are difficult to handle and frustrating to use by persons with impaired motor skills.